Providing information, education, and training to build knowledge, develop skills, and change attitudes that will lead to increased independence, productivity, self determination, integration and inclusion (IPSII) for people with developmental disabilities and their families.

LONDON,
ENGLAND--Despite testimony suggesting that Charlotte Wyatt's condition is
improving, the Court of Appeal on Thursday rejected an effort by the
22-month-old's parents intended to have a hospital provide life-saving measures
if she stops breathing.

The three-member panel said, however, that a review of the case should
be "accelerated" and scheduled a hearing for that review to take place next
month.

Darren Wyatt told the Daily Mail that he and his wife, Debbie, would
continue to fight for their daughter's life.

"It is quite possible that by the time the legal review comes around
Charlotte will be well enough to go home, and the hospital will end up looking
very silly," Mr. Wyatt said. "Meanwhile we have this death sentence hanging
over her."

"When the High Court made the original ruling last year, they said it
would be wrong to resuscitate Charlotte because of her quality of life. But now
the doctors accept her quality of life has improved, so why have they not
lifted the order?"

Charlotte was born three months premature in October 2003. Doctors at
St. Mary's Hospital in Portsmouth insist that she has serious heart and lung
problems, is deaf and blind, makes no movement on her own and feels no
sensations except constant pain. They had predicted last October that she would
develop a lung infection during the winter and would stop breathing.

The High Court's Mr. Justice Hedley agreed with the hospital that it
would be most humane to leave her to die if she stops breathing. In April,
another High Court judge backed the order, ruling that "futile aggressive
treatment" was not in Charlotte's best interest.

Charlotte's parents claim that their daughter smiles, reaches out to
them, tries to talk, likes to watch her toys, and now stays outside for up to
40 minutes at a time.

Last week, the Wyatts received a letter from the hospital admitting that
the girl's condition had improved significantly. The hospital wrote, however,
that her improvement did not change the doctors' opinion that she should not
receive life-saving treatment if her breathing stops.

Charlotte's case and those of similar children highlight the
disagreement between disability rights groups and medical professionals over
who should determine the quality of life of people with disabilities, and who
should decide whether patients -- particularly newborns -- with certain
disabilities or medical conditions should die.

The GCDD is funded under the provisions of P.L. 106-402. The federal law also provides funding to the Minnesota Disability Law Center,the state Protection and Advocacy System, and to the Institute on Community Integration, the state University Center for Excellence. The Minnesota network of programs works to increase the IPSII of people with developmental disabilities and families into community life.